1st November 2009

BA sign contract with Met Office.

BAA, the UK’s biggest airport operator, has signed a contract with the Met Office to use OpenRunway service. The deal covers all airports in the BAA group, including Heathrow Airport.OpenRunway provides year-round weather information in a fast and easy-to-use web-based format providing critical weather information.

The service helps airport staff make the right decisions, quickly, to keep ground-based operations running smoothly.

This is particularly important during winter months when a decision to de-ice a runway is critical in terms of managing safety and minimising environmental impact.

OpenRunway provides the user with all the weather information for them to make an informed decision. The service also offers a 24-hour forecaster consultancy for those occasions when the weather conditions are marginal.

Tim Hardy, Airside Director at BAA, said: “Operating the country’s major airports is a huge responsibility, which is why we’ve chosen the Met Office’s OpenRunway service to be an integral part of our operations. We believe it will help us maintain superior safety levels, help keep our airports operational and minimise disruption to our customers.”

It alerts travellers to the  forthcoming weather conditions at the  airport, up to five days ahead, so that they can plan ahead with hopefully no unforseen problems.

OpenRunway has been designed to help to mitigate the effects of the weather on airport staff and resources — minimising unnecessary operational downtime and costs. It provides information on changing weather conditions so that those in question may plan for any disruptions that may affect  ground operations, ensuring the safety of aircraft and passengers.

If travelling from a BAA controlled airport such as Gatwick, we recommend that you vist OpenRunway service especially in the winter to see if there are going to be any potential delays.. Also for customers who have booked Gatwick airport parking or Gatwick hotel parking with ourselves it makes sense to set off on your journey earlier if bad weather is forecast because there is a good chance the weather will cause delays on the motorways.